Several minutes later.
Sigrdrífa stayed in the small wooden cabin with Lily, while Carol Cat, Trafalgar, and I faced off at the campsite outside.
As a precaution, Trafalgar maintained a certain distance from the small cabin where Lily and I were hiding.
"Let me start by explaining my position in coming here. Before that, let me show you something."
Trafalgar opened his quest panel and selected information sharing.
Information shared by Trafalgar appeared before me—it was a time-limited quest issued by Duke Borgia to adventurers.
The rewards were...
Reward 1: 500,000 crystal stones.
Reward 2: Flying mount, Griffon.
Reward 3: Baronial title in Duke Obi's territory, Kingdom of Michel.
Reward 4...
There were over a dozen similar rewards listed. Any single one of them would be enough to rally large numbers of players to serve loyally, let alone the fact that Duke Borgia's offered reward was: all of them.
Some NPCs would issue quests with rewards they couldn't actually provide to deceive adventurers, but Duke Borgia's reputation was guarantee enough for adventurers not to worry about such concerns.
"The adventurers are all going crazy meow... All the players in the ducal territory are actively moving, and adventurers outside the barrier are racking their brains trying to get in."
"Does the [Barrier] have entry points?"
"Yes meow, five in total."
Five—it seemed this wasn't the lowest level barrier. For the scope of Duke Obi's territory, having only five entry points was too few, which also meant the defending forces would be even more heavily concentrated.
On the other hand, being able to leave the barrier also meant being able to enter—this wasn't a one-way street.
The longer we delayed, the more adventurers there would be.
Scrolling down the shared information, Lily's face was prominently displayed at the bottom, allowing all adventurers to correctly identify their target.
"Your position is very precarious. From what I can see, that girl called Amaryllis has no combat ability, right? The only difficulty lies in searching."
"..."
I remained silent, refusing to reveal any information about Lily.
"What concerns me is why Duke Borgia would target an ordinary girl so specifically... In other words, if she has reason to be so deliberately targeted by Duke Borgia, then she shouldn't be called ordinary."
"How would we understand what the big shots above are thinking mya?"
"TEP's quest publishing system is different from other games—it's not just official operations that refresh quests. NPCs have the right to issue quests according to their own intelligence... There's no hint on the official website, which means this is Duke Borgia's own decision."
Trafalgar didn't care whether I could understand, and shut down Carol Cat's interruption.
"Baron Trafalgar, you mentioned that your title was personally granted by Duke Borgia."
"See that? Look how good Anna's memory is."
"Meow!"
Carol Cat struck a "super fierce" pose, and Trafalgar's mouth twitched—for some reason, he was actually intimidated by Carol Cat.
"I was granted my title half a year ago. More than just receiving the title, I fought alongside Duke Borgia."
"Half a year ago?" Carol Cat seemed to have an impression of this timeframe. "That expedition against the undead when Duke Borgia went on campaign?"
Since the increased activity of undead species, all major races have shown active resistance against the undead. Originally, humanity's best method for fighting undead was the [Crusades] launched by His Holiness the Pope, but as the undead became increasingly active and overwhelming, His Holiness began promising the nobles of human kingdoms that he would allow them to launch small-scale holy wars against the undead in the name of the Father.
Duke Borgia's territory, Duke Obi's domain, belonged to the border of the Kingdom of Michel and was closer to the undead. Half a year ago, after receiving support from his friend Duke Este, Duke Borgia began organizing an expedition against the undead. Because of the lengthy preparation time, adventurers also learned of this news, and many actively participated in the expedition.
"That's right. Duke Borgia, along with his second and third sons, planned that expedition together. The original intention was to strike a blow against the undead's arrogant momentum and establish merit for his two sons, because his eldest son had mysteriously died in some incident much earlier, and he was preparing to train his second son as the new heir... But I'm getting off track. Before departure, neither we adventurers nor Duke Borgia and his men anticipated what kind of catastrophe we would encounter during the expedition."
"Maybe it was a surprise from the developers."
"Surprise? I'd say it was more of a shock." Trafalgar laughed bitterly. "During that expedition, we encountered the [Vampire King]!"
The vampire race, under the game's worldview, belongs to a branch of the undead species.
The leader commanding the vampire race is the Vampire King, also one of the extremely rare intelligent NPCs among the undead. If I had to make a comparison, it would be something like a demon lord's general.
"I remember meow, some players even went to complain to the developers, saying why they spawned a World Boss like that meow.”
World Boss—a powerful boss aimed at all server players, possessing combat abilities and skills far surpassing regular monsters, with exceptionally rich rewards upon defeat. The power of World Bosses often requires top player teams working together to overcome them. In *The Eternal Pacificus*, which lacks resurrection methods, slaying a World Boss is particularly difficult, though the sense of honor is also more profound.
The Vampire King happened to be one of the powerful World Bosses.
"At the time, the major guilds didn't take Duke Borgia's planned expedition too seriously, resulting in the adventurers participating in the expedition having overall combat strength and teamwork abilities insufficient to deal with the Vampire King. In that bloody battle, both the adventurers and Duke Borgia's army suffered heavy losses. Duke Borgia's third son died in battle, and his second son was even converted by the Vampire King into one of his spawn."